Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

About Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

Founded in New Orleans in 1972, POPEYES® has more than 40 years of history and culinary tradition. POPEYES® distinguishes itself with a unique New Orleans style menu featuring spicy chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp, and other regional items. The chain’s passion for its Louisiana heritage and flavorful authentic food has allowed POPEYES® to become one of the world’s largest chicken quick service restaurants with over 3,000 restaurants in the U.S. and around the world.

Now is an exciting time to become a Popeyes® franchisee. We are always on the look out for the best talent to continue to extend our Louisiana roots throughout the rest of North America!
At Popeyes we offer franchisees the opportunity to enter our system at any size, own your own land, and run your own business while serving America’s favorite fried chicken!

The first Popeyes location opened up in New Orleans 50 years ago. The story goes that in 1971, Al Copeland started a chicken restaurant in an effort to compete with KFC. His first venture failed, but a year later he opened a restaurant called Popeyes Mighty Good Fine Chicken. Copeland quickly discovered the benefit of franchising his idea. The first franchises popped up throughout Louisiana, but Popeyes now boasts over 2,700 locations worldwide.

In early 2017, Popeyes was purchased by Restaurant Brands International, a U.S. and Canadian fast food holding company. Other properties owned under the Restaurant Brands International (RBI) umbrella are fast food juggernaut Burger King and Canada’s largest quick-service restaurant chain, Tim Hortons.

How much does a Popeyes franchise cost?

The initial franchise fee for a Popeyes restaurant is $50,000 and the total estimated investment per location is between $235,000 and $454,000. Why the large window in estimated costs? Don’t forget that real estate prices can vary greatly based on location. A franchise owner in New York City is going to have much higher real estate costs than, say, a franchise owner in Baton Rouge. So factor that in when determining where you’ll likely fall on that total investment range.

Beyond those estimated initial costs, there are ongoing fees. Of your gross sales, approximately 4% is allocated to a marketing fund and 5% covers royalty fees.

Although the initial franchise fee is $50,000, there are ways to lower it. If you qualify for their Veterans Development Incentive Program or their Women and Minorities Development Incentive Program, you may be able to trim $22,500 off the fee and get it to a far more reasonable $27,500 rate.

Popeyes franchise requirements

Popeyes requires franchisees to have a net worth of $1 million per restaurant, $500,000 of which has to be in liquid assets. Ideally, Popeyes is looking for franchisees with experience in the restaurant business. But if you don’t have restaurant experience, that’s not a dealbreaker. The key is general business experience and a clear commitment to Popeyes. If you’re interested in potential future expansion, even better.

What are we looking for in a franchisee?

This may be the right opportunity for you if:

– At Popeyes, we look for several important traits and attributes in our future franchisees including:
– You are looking for an active investment opportunity with a growing brand
– Are a results-focused, self-starter interested in running your own business
– You have previous restaurant, preferably QSR Chicken, experience with a proven track record of Southern Hospitality
– Have experience setting up or currently have an infrastructure and resources to run a successful business
– Net worth of $1,000,000
– Liquid assets of $500,000